The good beginning
by Greven
Summary: A different take on Sonic, his friends and the beginning of the fight against Eggman.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: Awake and away.

The storm, got lost, rain slick grass, slippery, cliff, falling falling falling falling… the ground, it gets closer I die!

"NO!" He screamed jerking upright. He blinked his eyes to life and his gaze fell on his body, something was wrong, even in the darkness that he had awoken in he could see something wasn't right. His fur was wrong, the color was strange and weird tubes and needles were sticking out of his arms. He swallowed hard as he pulled the needles from his arms and with a sickening 'swup' the he pulled the tubes from his arms each of them spilling a liquid out on the floor they had clearly been dripping straight into his bloodstream. He lifted his hands up in front of his eyes studying his hands, he still had all his 10 fingers but his hands were bloody and scared beyond recognition.

"What the hell is going on here." He whispered in a hoarse voice as he looked around the room. It was dark but even in the sparse light he could clearly see that this wasn't the wooden cabins or huts he was used to. These walls were made of metal and there were no furniture in the room except for the metal table he was lying on, instead there were weird glowing parts of the walls with changing numbers and letters. He sat up and finally realized that his legs were strange, they felt weird, like his joints were different from before and a small tag had been tied to one of his toes. He reached down and took a look at it.

"Sonic?" He read off the toe tag in the darkness. His name wasn't Sonic, though he had sworn off his last name almost a week ago now, maybe this was to be his new name. Sonic peeled off the tag and threw it to the side and jumped down from the table. He almost tripped as his legs were slightly longer than he remembered them to be and they were turning and bending strangely whenever he shifted his weight. Sonic stumbled his way to the door as he got a feel for his new legs and emerged into a metal hallway he picked left and started making his way through the strange metal structure.

Everywhere he looked he spotted strange cages weird carriages with wheels but no means for horses to pull them, and he even found a room where metallic men stood completely still like they had died standing up and had just become metallic shells of their former life.

He didn't ever hear it at first it was just kind of there in the background but as he traveled through the metal halls the sound grew larger and larger, the sound of metal against metal. Sonic made his way towards the sound but as he approached the sound moved away and Sonic was forced to walk faster through the metal maze to keep up with the sound but the sound was still moving faster than him and Sonic was forced to run to keep up.

It was insane, beyond anything he had ever experienced, his legs seemed to have a life of their own as he picked up speed and went faster and faster along the corridors. For the first time since he woke up Sonic smiled, speed, speed, godlike speed! Sonic sped up, testing his legs that turned to blurs as his speed picked up even more. Sonic let out a howl of happiness just as he reached a staircase with unimaginable speed. Unable to stop in time Sonic went flying out over the staircase and to his horror the hall was taking a sharp turn in front of him and the metal wall was approaching far faster than the ground. Sonic curled up in a small ball, trying to protect his arms, legs and head from the unavoidable devastating impact he knew would come when he smashed against the wall. But the terrible impact never came instead his ears were assaulted by a terrible screeching noise as the he stuck to the wall.

"What the hell?" Sonic mumbled as he hang helplessly on the wall, with much trouble and kicking he managed to get off the wall and standing on the floor he looked up on the long slim holes that had seemingly been cut into the metal wall. Sonic reached behind himself and gently touched the spikes on his back, he had had hundreds back in the day, covering his back like grass on a field, but it was different now, there were only a few spikes and they were shaped like blades and sharp as blades as well. Sonic could have sworn he cut his finger just by touching his new spikes but his hands were already so littered with cuts and scars that he couldn't be sure.

"What the hell happened to me?" Sonic wondered as he followed after the sound of the metal at a more sensible speed. Sonic had been running for almost 10 minutes as the sound suddenly started losing its volume and it wasn't because he was falling behind. Sonic sped up desperate to find the source of the sounds, the only real marker he had in the metal maze of doors and weird metal shells. Slowly the sound completely disappeared. "No! No no no no no!" Sonic muttered to himself as he sprinted at speeds he was barely aware of chasing the last echoes of the sound he had come to see as a guidance but the sound didn't reappear no matter how fast he ran, and just as he was finally giving up he turned a corner and starred onto a green field where flowers should be growing happily towards the sun and bees should be humming as they went to visit the flowers but they weren't. Hundreds of metal men were marching from the metal maze and trampled every flower, and every animal they came across as they cut a road through the landscape towards a small town.

"What the hell is going on here?" Sonic wondered as his ears were split by a roaring siren and another metal wall started to erupt between him and the field. "Oh hell no!" Sonic murmured quickly making his way outside before he was shut inside. He had barely landed on the ground before the metal behind him started to move. Sonic turned around and looked in awe as giant propellers lifted the enormous metal structure into the air. "That just isn't possible." Sonic said in disbelief as a guard came across a room in the aircraft that had a peculiar lack of hedgehog in it.

The metallic guard looked around the room and found the tag on the ground, the metal man lifted a hand and pulled off its own head, revealing the small cockpit inside. The small squirrel leaned forward and read the tag before putting the protective helmet back on and calling over the radio.

"High priority message for Dr. Eggman." He reported over the radio and a cackling voice replied with an angry: "WHAT?"

"I am afraid subject 50N/C is at present time unaccounted for."

"WHAT?!" Dr. Eggman's voice roared through the speakers. "That is a high priority subject how could it disappear?"

"The resent activity has left many parts of the ship dangerously understaffed, there has been no one stationed as guards for over 5 hours." The guard explained pulling up a staff plan on his small computer screen.

"You find me that subject or your nuts belong to me!" Eggman roared and cut the connection.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Rumors and Red knight

"Just a minute." The bald ageing owner of the shoe shop said as the doorbell brought news of a customer in the store. He huffed and puffed as he finally managed to push the large box of shoes onto the top shelf in the storeroom, he hadn't sold a single one of those shoes, and it was a disaster for a small shop like his to burn in with 10 pairs of expensive shoes like this. The storeowner sighed and headed to the front desk where a brown hedgehog was tapping his foot. "What can I do for you sir?" He said as he got a closer look at the hedgehog, his spikes were weird, must be someone from out of town, wasn't a local species of hedgehogs that looked anything like this one.

"I am looking for a pair of shoes, 2 pairs if you have them." The hedgehog smiled as he looked around the shop. "Preferably running shoes if you have any."

"Well I have a fine section of running shoes over here." The store owner said leading the customer to the right section of the store. "What size are do you use?"

"Size 16." The hedgehog said looking over the shoes on the wall. "But it looks like your selection ends at around a 13." He sighed. "Well thanks for the help, but I guess I will have to try somewhere else."

"Hold your horses one second." The storeowner said stopping the hedgehog in his tracks. "I might have some out back. Besides I can't let you out wearing those things." He said gesturing to the hedgehogs shoes that were filled with holes and covered in dirt. "What on earth did you do to those poor shoes anyway, they look like they were in a war or something."

"Well I run a lot." The hedgehog smiled.

"Oh really?" The owner said heading out to his storeroom. "You any good?" He called as he pulled the box back down.

"I can run at a decent pace yeah." The hedgehog smiled with a peculiar smile. "But I am always looking to improve."

"Why? Wanna race the blue blur?"

"The blue blur?" the hedgehog asked as the owner returned with a small brow package.

"A local criminal, or so people say." The storeowner told as he pulled the lit off the box and showed the hedgehog a pair of red running shoes. "He has been robbing the kings rings collectors all over the country, they say he is so fast they never even see him, just a blue blur and for a couple of months he have been robbing around here."

"Really?" The hedgehog asked as he kicked on the shoes without using his hands.

"Yeah he isn't very popular around here." The storeowner said frowning a bit of how he treated the shoes.

"Why is that, he is only stealing the kings money isn't he?" The hedgehog asked and added. "I'll take them."

"Good that will be 20 rings." The store keeper said lightening up a lot after the deal was in the house. "Well you see he stole 2000 rings not 3 days ago that were supposed to be payment to the mercenaries that are protecting a few of the small villages down south, and without their payment Eggman and his robot army are gonna destroy those villages."

"Sounds like he is just taking care of himself." The hedgehog said as he put the rings on the counter using his clove covered hands for the first time. "Can't blame him for that."

"You can when it gets people killed, and trust me stealing those rings will cause someone to get killed, either innocent people by Eggman or him by the red knight."

"The red knight?" The hedgehog asked curiously, hanging back to continue the conversation.

"You really aren't from around here are you?" The storeowner chuckled. "The red knight is one of the kings most loyal men, they say he is as strong as 10 ox's and can punch straight through walls! I am telling you when he gets his hands on that criminal he is going to pound him into the ground!"

"Well by the sound of it he is gonna have to catch him first." The hedgehog smiled and turned to head for the door.

"You don't wanna stay a bit? It looks like it is going to rain." The storeowner said and turned around to rummage through the cabin behind the counter. "I have an umbrella I can sell you if you want." He chuckled as he found the umbrella and turned around to an empty store while the first drops of water were already starting to wash a grey blur blue with new red shoes.

------

"Retreat!" The squad leader roared, as he gritted his teeth, in 15 years of service he had never once called a retreat, but with the mercenaries gone they were grossly outnumbered. Damn that blue blur, the effects of his little ring stealing stunt were already costing lives. "Fall back to the village! We will defeat them in the alleys." He roared waving his men back as a robot flanked him. He jumped back as the giant hammer arm soared through the air and smashed the ground where he had been standing. The squad leader used the hammer as a stepping stone and jumped off the hammer and brought his sword down in a deadly arc that cleaved its way straight into the cockpit of the robot that became limp without the guidance of the animal within it.

"RETREAT!" The squad leader bellowed as he looked around and saw most of his men still engaged in combat against the sturdy robots. They could be taken down, he had killed dozens already, but to kill one of these you had to kill its driver and getting to the driver was difficult to say the least. The only reason he had been able to slay his own foe was because he had aimed for the joint between the ihelmet/i and the rest of the robot where the armor was weakest, but it was a small target and very hard to hit. "I SAID-" The squad leader began as a robot came soaring through the air and crashed into the ground besides him.

It was as if the entire battlefield fell quiet for a moment, it was possible to tumble the robots, maybe even push them, but sending one of the 500 pound heavy robots soaring through the air was unheard of, it simply couldn't happen and yet a crunching sound was heard and a robot soared almost ten yards into the air before crashing down into another group of robots, for a brief moment the Squad leader caught sight of the miracle maker and a grim smile crossed his lips.

"The red Knight is here! Slay the enemy!" He roared and his roar was returned by his men as they thought on with renewed strength. The robots were in trouble, caught between the soldiers and the virtual one man army that the red knight was turning out to be. No matter where they turned their seemed to be a sword or a fist waiting to bring them down and it wasn't long before the red knight was face to face with the last of the Robots. It seemed to be the leader, it was bigger than the others and moved quickly, it had already killed 3 of the soldiers.

"Lord Knuckles!" The squad leader called. "Allow us to take care of him."

"No I have him." Knuckles said seriously not taking his eyes off the robot.

"You really think you can take me?" The metallic voice of the robot said. "I am one of the 10 captains of Eggman's army! You will never take me!" The robot roared as a blade jumped out of its arm and it went for Knuckles. But the red Echidna was prepared and moved in below the blade and with one devastating punch he punched straight through the robot. Placing a boot on the robot he ripped his hand out again.

"The captain should still be alive inside, you can interrogate him." Knuckles said to a couple of soldiers as he turned to the squad leader.

"What a glorious victory my lord!" The squad leader laughed. "But what brings you to this corner of the kingdom my lord?" He asked as his soldiers pulled out a very angry and violent bunny from the robot.

Knuckles the Echidna looked up at the squad leader with a hard look in his eyes that caused even the hardened veteran to shiver. "I am here to catch a blue blur."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Robotic whoopass and cold leftovers.

"20 rings should be enough for today." Sonic pondered to himself and picked the ring out of the chest and slipped each of them onto his arms. Sonic placed the ring chest back in the small hole he had dug for it, and poured dirt over the chest. "There we go." Sonic smiled as he looked down over his arms and noticed that the rings had disappeared as he expected. "Time to go then." Sonic smiled as he crawled out of the small cave and out onto the green hill again. "A fine day for running." He sighed happily as he took off at blazing speeds.

It was his passion, his love, his life. Flying across the ground at a speed no other being could hope to reach. It was what he did, what made him unique, what kept him from being just another cog in the machine. Sonic laughed and yelled loudly in glee as he raced across the lands, he liked these green hills they were relatively peaceful and reminded him a bit of back home, but he would soon have to leave, the kings men were coming to get him and if the shoe seller had been just half true in his description then this red knight was not someone Sonic had any interest in meeting face to face.

Sonic looked down while he ran, observing his new shoes absorbing much of the impacts from his quick steps. "Rings well spent." He chuckled and looked up just in time to see the tree. Sonic didn't even have time to slow down before he slammed straight into the at such a high speed that the tree almost tipped over by the force of the impact. Sonic himself was sent flying by the impact and slamming into the ground so hard that it created a small crater. "I should have brought more rings." He murmured as he slowly got to his feet. "That is one stubborn tree." He mumbled as he went over to the tree again taking a moment to look at the dent he had managed to make in it. "Wonder how fast I was going." Sonic had barely muttered the words before the wind turned and carried the unmistakable noise of a roaring engine behind the nearby hill.

Sonic's mind raced, an engine meant that this had something to do with Eggman, he was the only one who had those driving car things. It could be a ring transport, Eggman had more rings than even the king and he would hardly notice if he lost a few hundred, besides, Sonic really needed some new rings if he didn't want to go back to his small hideout, and the less he ran in and out of there the better. "I'll just check it out." Sonic agreed with himself and ran up the hill at a nice gentle pace, barely 30 miles per hour. "Jackpot." Sonic smiled deviously as he stopped the car. It was a small car with no roof and it was carrying a large chest with a heavy padlock on, definitely a ring transport, and what was even better was the fact that there were only 2 guard robots, one of them steering the thing and another limping behind the car, they had clearly seen some combat and now Sonic could finish things off easy. Sonic waited as the car rolled past his hiding spot on the hill, waiting for the limping guard to be in the right angle. Sonic waited patiently and then out of a bush the blue blur flashed towards the limping robot, launching himself into the air Sonic slammed feet first against the robot throwing it off its feet and smashing it into the hard dirt road. Sonic planted a foot through the power generator on the back of the robot to put it permanently out of commission.

"What the hell!" A mechanical voice roared as the robot driving the car leapt out of it and stormed towards Sonic. The robot towered over Sonic as its heavy steps shook the pebbles on the dusty road, Sonic bend his knees as the robot towered over him, and just as it brought its arms together to crush the hedgehog he leapt. A leap with the force of his super developed legs could normally carry him over 10 meters into the air, but Sonic wasn't looking for a quick escape, with a twist of his feet in the last second he sent his body into a violent forward spin. The spin was so violent and fast that in just half a meter of lift Sonic had spun half a round and his razor sharp spikes cut into the metal robot with ease. With a terrible screeching sound Sonics spikes carved their way up the robot and the great friction even kept him cutting through the robots head and he didn't stop till the spikes hit the fuel cells that exploded as they were ruptured. The explosion sent Sonic flying 10 feet along the road and made a perfect landing on his feet.

"Now that is how we do things where I come from." Sonic laughed as he looked back at the remains of his slain enemies. "Now for the spoils of war." Sonic chuckled and climbed onto the truck and with a mighty kick knocked off the padlock. "Now let's see what we have here." Sonic smiled as he pushed open the chest.

---

The red Echidna was walking along the dusty road, the tire tracks he was following were fresh here, it couldn't have been more than 2 hours since he had run into the transport, 20 robots had put up a fight against the red knight and only 2 had escaped alive, and they had taken the truck with them. He was pretty sure he had given one of the robots a limp by smashing the hydraulics system, but he couldn't be sure, all he knew was that getting a hold of an Eggman ring transport would not only give new funding to the local war effort, it would also be a great way to lure in the elusive 'blue blur'. Knuckles walked along the road and as he rounded a hill the truck finally came into view, the echidna quickly raised his fists and stormed towards the truck, only to realize that it lay abandoned.

Knuckles slowly moved closer, keeping an eye out for potential ambushes as he approached the truck. Behind the truck he spotted the immobile shapes of broken robots, one of them still seemed fairly intact, but the other was shredded like a tin can on a chopping block.

"What on earth could do this?" Knuckles mumbled to himself as he felt along the rough edges of the cut. A quick check of the robots revealed that both pilots were dead, one had been cut to pieces and the other had apparently smashed his head into the controls when the robot was knocked to the ground. Knuckles checked the radio's of the robot suits, the radio chatter had revealed important details about troop positioning before, but he got nothing but static off these two.

Confident that no ambush was lying in wait Knuckles climbed onto the truck and inspected the chest. It had clearly been opened by someone and the heavy padlock had been kicked off, knuckles opened the chest and looked inside, multiple straps and chains were decorating the inside of the chest, but they all seemed to have been ripped or bashed open.

"I don't think there were rings in this chest." Knuckles muttered to himself.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The expectations of a fanboy

"You saved me!" A fox yelled happily up at Sonic as he opened the chest.

"Please tell me you are hiding some rings under there." Sonic sighed pushing the fox aside and searching the chest. "Why were you in this chest? Where are all the rings?"

"Well this isn't a ring transport." The fox said. "I am Miles Prower by the way." The fox introduced himself crawling out of the chest to reveal the leather straps. "I was being transported by Eggman to another lab." He explained to Sonic who was scanning every inch of the chest for rings. "I managed to get out of the straps but I couldn't get the lid up."

"Well they locked it didn't they?" Sonic said finally accepting that there were no rings in the chest.

"Oh yeah they probably did." Miles realized as Sonic got a better look at him.

"Now I know my head hurts and all…" Sonic began slowly as he finally noticed the obvious problem about the ex-prisoner. "But you have 2 tails… or I have a serious concussion. " Sonic added to himself.

"Yeah I do." Miles smiled and jumped into the air as his tails started spinning at incredible speeds keeping the fox airborne.

"That… is weird." Sonic nodded to himself as the two tailed fox landed again. "Okay thanks for the pleasantries Tails-"

"Miles." Miles corrected.

"Whatever." Sonic waved it off. "but I am getting out of here. See ya." He added as his legs propelled him to incredible speeds as he zoomed away.

"Wow!" Tails said his jaw dropping. "Its him!" He gasped as he took off from the ground.

---

"HI!" Tails yelled happily as he descended on Sonics position.

"Son of a." Sonic sighed. "Don't you have some friends to bother?" He called back. "How did you find me anyway? You don't look too fast."

"You are easy to follow from the air." Tails said as he landed next to the spot where Sonic was standing.

"Well that wasn't exactly an invitation for you to follow." Sonic said getting ready to leave again.

"Wait!" Tails called. "I want to join you?"

"Join me?" Sonic said confused.

"You are fighting Eggman aren't you?"

"Fighting Eggman?" Sonic said breaking out in laughter. "Are you nuts? Where did you get that idea?"

"Well you are 50N/C arent you?" Tails said angrily. "I saw you breaking out of the lab! I saw you run past my cell, I knew you were going to come back and save me, and you did! You freed me!"

"Sorry Tails." Sonic shrugged.

"Its MILES!"

"And my name is Sonic not 50-whatever, and I didn't rescue you, I was looking for a pay day." Sonic said speeding off.

"Hey come back here!" Tails yelled as he once again to the sky.


End file.
